‘Game of Thrones’ season 6: Director on possible Stannis theories

The “Game of Thrones” finale brought us a number of surprising events, but one of the most notable ones involved the character of Stannis Baratheon after he received quite the surprise welcome at Winterfell. When you think about the way that sequence ended with Brienne and the cutaway, it only makes sense to wonder for a minute what actually happened.

Is Stannis really dead? There is a sentiment out there that unless you see someone put into a coffin, there is a chance they come back. This is what is fueling for the most part the theories at the moment regarding Jon Snow, who could technically still be alive despite whatever Kit Harington or the show’s executive producers say. The same now could theoretically be said for Stannis. David Nutter, who directed “Mother’s Mercy” as well as the famed Red Wedding episode from season 3, did not necessarily confirm that the contender for king is dead to the Wall Street Journal. However, you can read between the lines here pretty easily:

“…[There] was a real sense of inevitability toward what was going to happen, and I think anything beyond that would have been somewhat gratuitous. I know for us to say that about “Game of Thrones,” that’s an interesting way to put it, but you could really get a sense that Stannis knew that his time had come, and there was nothing else really to say, nothing else really to do. I always believe that editing is the kind of thing where you want to cut into a scene a little bit after it starts and get out before it ends. This is exactly what we did in this sequence, and I thought it worked perfectly.”

The easy interpretation here is that the show wants you to think that Stannis is gone, and the logical explanation is that he probably is. What other role would he really have on the show after this, other than to maybe be used by Brienne as some sort of bargaining chip? It just doesn’t feel that likely.

If you do want to see some of our other early “Game of Thrones” season 6 coverage / speculation, head over to the link here! Also, sign up now to get some other throne-worthy TV news on all we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)